Take two male figure skaters, throw in a preposterous storyline, and you've got Blades of Glory, a surprisingly funny film that almost makes you forgive Will Ferrell for his back-to-back 2005 clunkers Kicking & Screaming a... more &raquond Bewitched. This time around, Ferrell eats the scenery in his role as a sex-addicted, cocky skating champ named Chazz Michael Michaels. When he gets into an on-podium fight with his nemesis and co-gold medallist Jimmy MacElroy (Jon Heder, Napoleon Dynamite), both skaters are banned from competing in men's figure-skating events. Forever. Their fall from grace is brutal. Chazz is forced to work for a D-list skating show, while pampered Jimmy is disowned by his wealthy and cold-hearted adoptive father (excellently played by William Fichtner), who only wants to be around winners. When Jimmy points out that he tied for gold, his dad cruelly says, "If I wanted to share, I would've bought you a brother." Flash forward 3-1/2 years and Jimmy's No. 1 stalker Hector (Nick Swardson) says he's found a loophole. Jimmy's been banned from men's singles events, but there's nothing that says he can't compete in pairs skating. After a chance meeting with Chazz, mayhem ensues as the two rivals team up to go against the brother-and-sister team of Stranz and Fairchild Van Waldenberg (played by Will Arnett and his real-life wife, Amy Poehler of Saturday Night Live and Mean Girls fame). The Van Waldenbergs will stop at nothing to beat the competition, even if that means literally beating up the competition. They have no qualms manipulating their sweet little sister (Jenna Fischer, The Office) to seduce both men to try to break up the team. The finale will be no surprise to moviegoers who know that comedies like this aren't set up to make its leading men losers. But there is one brief skating sequence set in North Korea that will surprise (and shock) many viewers because of its brutality. Ferrell and Heder make a great comedy team. Though he has been accused of playing the same role since his breakthrough performance in Napoleon Dynamite and, to a certain extent, plays a similar type of role here, Heder is spot-on as Jimmy. He manages to convey innocence, bitterness, and longing--all within the span of a few seconds and while wearing a peacock unitard (You can understand why Hector is so enthralled with him). Look for guest appearances by real-life skating champs Scott Hamilton, Brian Boitano, Peggy Fleming, Dorothy Hamill, Nancy Kerrigan, and Sasha Cohen, who gets to sniff Chazz's jockstrap. --Jae-Ha Kim Beyond Blades of Glory

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Movie Reviews

I am slightly embarrassed at how hard I laughed at this movi

Peter Shermeta | Rochester, MI | 04/30/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"When going in, my expectations were neither high nor low. I guess I figured that, to use Will Ferrell movies as my metrics, it could not possibly be as good as Anchorman but it had to be better than Talladega Nights (Yes, Talladega Nights was THAT bad).

Sidenote: It's true. I basically set two extremes and figured it would fall in between. If you didn't happen to catch my common sense approach and think me a genius, you have fantastic taste in geniuses.

Jimmy MacElroy (Jon Heder) is the by-the-book, media-darling for the sport of figure skating. Chazz Michael Michaels (Will Ferrell) is the exact opposite, though his bad-boy, sex-object image still allows him to post scores comparable to those of MacElroy. One day they end up in a fight that gets them banned from competition until they come across a loophole. They can compete again, but under the circumstances they must compete in pairs...together. Basically, like Napoleon Dynamite, if you are looking for a plot to this movie you'll never find one. If you want a movie with a decent balance of physical comedy and Will Ferrell making crude jokes, Blades of Glory may surprise you.

As long as you take the movie at face value and remember that you are not seeing a movie that is geared towards providing any entertainment other than cheap laughs for dirty jokes, this is a movie you should enjoy. Any time you try to go beyond that and search for something more you will be disappointed.

If I may be so bold, it might have been the worst career move ever for Jon Heder to use his own voice in his role as the title character in the love-it-or-hate-it comedy Napoleon Dynamite. The popularity he gained by his part in that movie has given him new opportunities, but they have been small parts because, well, when Jon Heder is in a movie, you have Napoleon Dynamite in that movie. He may continue to fight the up-hill battle of shrugging that stigma, or he can accept his fate. Blades of Glory may have been the first step towards that acceptance. Rather than trying to play support in a cheesy RomCom, he took a "starring" role as the patsy in a slapstick comedy. I can describe his character by saying that he is a tortured soul who was adopted by a billionnaire sports fan who gives him every advantage to succeed in the sport of figure skating, but it is probably easier to put it in terms which are a little easier to understand: In Blades of Glory, Jon Heder is the butt of just about every joke. As that guy, Heder succeeds.

I never got hooked on "Arrested Development," but since its demise Will Arnett's name has popped up more and more. I expected that his part in Blades of Glory would be bigger than it was, but it was certainly big enough to see why his popularity is rising.

As long as Will Ferrell makes a movie like this every few years, I will forgive him for however many attempts he wants to make to break into "serious" roles. A few of his comedic roles since Anchorman have seemed forced. In Blades of Glory, like in Anchorman, Ferrell seemed really at home in the character. It was a part that just let him do what he does best. Maybe what I am saying is that when Will Ferrell is womanizing, it makes me laugh hysterically. "

Ricky Bobby 2: This Time on Ice

Wesley Mullins | Kentucky | 12/31/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Will Ferrell springboards off the success of Talladega Nights and lampoons another niche sport in Blades of Glory, a satire of figure skating. Although his character is more akin to his self absorbed and perverse Ron Burgundy, the film relies on the same formula that succeeded in his Nascar film, as joke after joke is leveled at the sport most of us don`t quite "get". The plot is full of one movie cliché after another, everything from a romance ruined when one party misinterprets a precarious situation to a breakneck chase to reach the arena in time to compete, but as long as you understand going in what to expect, this is a solid Will Ferrell film."

Couldn't stop laughing

Julie | California | 04/14/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I already liked Will Ferrell and Jon Heder before seeing this movie, but now I'm an even bigger fan. This buddy movie satirizing the championship ice skating world features gorgeous costumes, breathtaking choreography, cameo appearances from all your favorite skaters, really silky hair, bad kissing, and more gender busting sight gags than you can shake a skate at. I can't wait to get it on DVD just to watch the gag reel."

Gloriously Silly

Bookphile | USA | 09/18/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I also find Will Ferrell a bit hit or miss. When he's on, he's on and when he's off it can be painful to watch. With this movie, though, he really hit the mark. It's chock full of silliness and sight gags that make watching it a lot of fun. There is some very crude humor and some gross-out moments but I thought Ferrell was rather more restrained than he sometimes is and that certainly worked to the advantage of this movie. The character in this movie is more or less interchangeable with most Ferrell characters but that's not the point. The point is the sheer silliness of the plot, the over the top events, and the hilarity of watching skating star after skating star make often surprising cameo appearances.

Jon Heder is really wonderful in this movie. Where Ferrell is pure silliness, Heder is good at creating some nuance in his characters. Though his characters tend to be spacey and weird, he does a good job of making them somewhat real. He has a good sense for when understatement can do a great deal more than something very overt and obvious. I think he is a great talent and look forward to seeing more of him.

As far as slapstick comedies go, this one is something of a gem and is worth watching solely for the hilariously silly skating routine at the end of the movie. Ferrell and Heder make a great duo and I'd like to see them do another movie together."